"Are the choristers from Tchudovo?"
"No, from the Synod."
"I asked the footman. He says he’s going to take her home to his country place at once. Awfully rich, they say. That’s why she’s being married to him."
"No, they’re a well-matched pair."
"I say, Marya Vassilievna, you were making out those fly-away crinolines were not being worn. Just look at her in the puce dress—an ambassador’s wife they say she is—how her skirt bounces out from side to side!"
"What a pretty dear the bride is—like a lamb decked with flowers! Well, say what you will, we women feel for our sister."
Such were the comments in the crowd of gazing women who had succeeded in slipping in at the church doors.
Chapter 6When the ceremony of plighting troth was over, the beadle spread before the lectern in the middle o
